Best New Albums of 2023
The time has come. After much deliberation, I’ve landed on my top 50 new releases of the year, and I’ll be sharing them with you here. I’ve already given a few of these records space on here, so those that have already been written about will just be linked to that piece. This is mainly to give me a chance to acknowledge a lot of the other new releases I heard and enjoyed this year that didn’t get their chance in the spotlight.
This top 50 is in no particular order, except my Album of the Year, which is last. Hopefully, you find something new in this bunch. It was an inspiring year for music, a year that started strong and only continued to get stronger across genres, from big and small acts, independent and major labels, and I’m just happy I’ve gotten to follow along and share some favorites here. Without further ado, my Top 50 New Albums of 2023.
The Window, Ratboys
The fifth studio album from Chicago-based quartet, Ratboys create a punk sound that is accessible, with the slightest jam band lean. The Window has a layer of folk that I wasn’t anticipating, alongside a twang and brightness that adds a veil of Midwestern emo-meets-Laurel Canyon Americana to the record’s entire sound. The album is emotive, with deep-hitting lyrics that paint a picture of the uncertainty and avoidance Julia Steiner matches with her full-bodied vocal delivery. The magnum opus of The Window, in my opinion, is the nearly nine-minute epic “Black Earth, WI,” which moved me to the point where I was reciting a play-by-play, much like an overexcited sports announcer. Ratboys combine a catchy yet poignant hook with their own version of classic rock, going off on a jam that seamlessly finds its way back to the melody, tying itself in a bow before sending you off to The Window’s last two songs. One of my most pleasant surprises and unexpected loves of the year, this one’s for my lovers of all things Pavement, New Riders of the Purple Sage, American Football, and everything in between.
Top tracks include: “Morning Zoo,” “Crossed that Line,” “I Want You (Fall 2010)”
The Age of Pleasure, Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe does it all, and has been doing it all for quite some time. Nearly two decades after first getting her start, Monáe released The Age of Pleasure in June, five years after fan-and-industry-favorite Dirty Computer (2018). Emphasizing a change in direction—a change in perspective, a lifestyle change—Monáe was making their sonic return on their terms. Those terms: positivity, self-love, confidence, and freedom. All things The Age of Pleasure exudes. A true summer record, Monáe used their PR rollout to emphasize the terms of their new era with poolside music videos, free the nipple philosophies, and a moving and personal interview with StyleLikeU. The Age of Pleasure finds Monáe at her most healed, her most centered, her most daring, and her most sure of herself. There is a veil of “fuck you, I’ll do what I want” energy to the whole thing that is earned and respectable, inspiring others to exist wholly as themselves without compromise.
Top tracks include: “Champagne Shit,” “Phenomenal,” “The Rush,” “Know Better”
Fountain Baby, Amaarae
Ghanian-American singer Amaarae returned with her second full-length LP, Fountain Baby, in June. Another contender for Album of the Summer, Amaarae leans into dancehall beats across the genre and geographical spectrum to create almost-overconfident bops that measure up to the often sexually explicit lyrics they’re accompanying. The blend of Afropop, hip-hop, jazz, and R&B with sprinkles of strings, horns, harps, and auxiliary percussion creates a unique experimental pop sound that is completed by Amaarae’s floating falsetto, almost whispering to listeners about her adventures and escapades (see “Big Steppa,” “Wasted Eyes”). Fountain Baby exists in the divine, in the luxurious: Amaarae namedrops designers and brands like Dior, Tesla, and Bentley. For all of that opulence, there is also introspection: “Sex, Violence, Suicide” sees Amaarae dive into the nitty gritty of a less-than-healthy relationship (“What’s wrong with us? / Is that I love you? / Too much too much too much”) that takes a turn from acoustic reflecting to blown out riot grrrl anger. “Sociopathic Dance Queen” immediately follows, with dream pop glitter and that classic Amaarae breathy register. These switches make Fountain Baby what it is: a daring and ambitious endeavor that only continues to pay off with time.
Top tracks include: “Big Steppa,” “Aquamarine Luvs Ecstasy”
Radial Gate, Sluice (LOTW 07)
*Adding a note because I don’t think this record got nearly as much recognition as it should have (at least on this blog, it’s potentially my fault for overshadowing it with a rant about GUTS), but I just want to emphasize my love for this record. Absolutely in my top five from the year. If you’re going to listen to any of these, try this one out for size.
Top tracks include: “Centurion,” “Fourth Of July,” “New Leicester”
Water Made Us, Jamila Woods (LOTW 10)
Top tracks include: “Bugs,” “Wolfsheep”
Forever Forever, Genevieve Artadi
Forever Forever is the latest LP from LA’s Genevieve Artadi, a frequent Thundercat collaborator with roots in jazz studies. Taking inspiration from the greats across the jazz and classical canons like Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Chopin, and Debussy, Artadi turns convention on its head, combining symphonic jazz with modern-day influences like Björk and Dionne Warwick. To me, Forever Forever is a jazzy Melody’s Echo Chamber-meets-Broadcast. The record itself is unique, going down many sonic tangents (including full-blown classic jazz piano solos, guitar overtures, and deep synth patterns). It’s an experimental mix of funk, jazz, pop, and alternative rock that explores, as Artadi puts it “everything from my past that is in my subconscious.” The record seamlessly explores Artadi’s life and relationships thus far with the sounds she feels are most associated with it: “I’ve gone so far / I’ve gone so far for you / Building myself / Changing myself for you” set to a techy breakdown on “I Know.” Forever Forever can just as easily set the mood for your next classy Paris dinner party as it can soundtrack a self-reflective walk through the fog. One of the most unique releases of the year, and worth a listen if you’re looking for something that breaks the rules.
Top tracks include: “A Romantic Interlude Will Soon Come To You,” “From Avalanche,” “Watch For The View”
Lotus Glow, Adi Oasis
Prefacing this blurb with the fact that this record had me convinced I could be a DJ when I first heard it. That’s how smooth the beats are. I was two clicks away from buying a full-blown setup. Thanks, Adi.
French-Caribbean singer and bassist Adeline Michèle started a new chapter for herself under the name Adi Oasis. It’s a persona that came together in the wake of 2020’s racial justice reckoning, inspiring her to take her storytelling deeper than before, with usual themes of love, relationships, and desire (most notably, her urge for a child on “Multiply,” which eventually became a reality: Adi had her daughter in October), this time with newfound confidence and hints of political and social commentary (see her meditate on those that try to put her in racial, gender, and sexuality boxes on “Marigold,” or her perspectives on gun violence on “Dumpalltheguns”—“Not guilty / It’s just part of the plan / Walk free / When you shoot a Black man”—it’s set to such a groovy beat you almost miss the point she’s trying to make). With roots in disco, Adi’s smoother-than-smooth bass licks take center stage and drive the record through its 50-minute runtime, providing the perfect medium for instrumental liberties to take place, liberties that take Lotus Glow through phases of funk, soul, and R&B with glimmers of Adi’s disco roots throughout.
Top tracks include: “Get it Got it,” “Marigold,” “Dumpalltheguns,” “Sugarcane — Interlude”
This Stupid World, Yo La Tengo
The seventeenth full-length LP from Brooklyn three-piece Yo La Tengo, This Stupid World, in my mind, was a perfect midwinter release. The group’s mentality throughout the record is as clear as ever: they want to make music they like, and that’s all that matters. Industry and genre trends, social expectations, and gear and recording advancements don’t impact the trio’s view of their sound, or the band’s overall direction. This Stupid World could have been released in 2000 just as easily as 2023, with the whole thing evoking a vibe akin to And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (2000), also a mid-February release. One could argue that This Stupid World picks up where And Then Nothing left off, with similar imagery evoking a mundane, universal suburbia, finally releasing some of the pent-up energy built into the tranquility of the 2000 release. That’s not to say the entire record is a grating explosion of sound and emotion. Georgia Hubley’s quintessentially sweet and soft vocals find their place on This Stupid World, with highlight “Aselestine” offering a callback to their many folky subdued tracks that have done so well for them over the past almost 30 years (“I’ll Be Around,” “Center of Gravity,” “Our Way to Fall”). This Stupid World is a perfect representation of a band that’s been in the game for so long that they’re leaning into the things that make them great. The most important, in my opinion, is the amount of sound they make with just three people. This stuck out to me seeing them live at Brooklyn Steel a month after This Stupid World came out. They had no issue filling the venue with their sound, but they were also able to pull it all back and make everyone shut up and tune into the soft-spoken melodies of their softer tracks. This duality is what makes Yo La Tengo great, and it’s been rewarding to see the group continue to put out music together.
Top tracks include: “Fallout,” “Tonight’s Episode,” “Aselestine”
Jaguar II, Victora Monét (Modern Music Analysis)
Top tracks include: “Smoke (Reprise),” “Cadillac (A Pimp’s Anthem),” “How Does It Make You Feel,” “Stop (Askin’ Me 4Shyt)”
Javelin, Sufjan Stevens
In true Sufjan fashion, this album is honestly too devastating for words. I can’t say I’ve returned to it that much since its release, but I can acknowledge the musicianship, emotion, pain, and hints of healing that went into the record’s creation. The storytelling is poignant and reflective, while also being universal enough for each listener to place themselves in each song’s plot. “A Running Start” is a favorite; one of the more positive songs on the record, it feels like the warmth of new love, highlighted with choral backing vocals, crisp acoustic plucking, and Christmas carol-adjacent chimes and bells (this could be a contender for Best New Christmas Song: “The winter pines, the lonely drake / The light beneath the frozen lake”), that run off on their own tangent of buildup to close out the song. Following that up by jumping right into “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” is enough to knock the wind out of any listener.
I just want one good thing to happen to this man. Please.
Top tracks include: “A Running Start,” “There’s A World”
New Blue Sun, André 3000
André 3000 became a trending topic after announcing his newest release, New Blue Sun, a flute-based, somewhat ambient-leaning monster of a release, with song titles that look like run-on sentences and runtimes that look like episodes of I Think You Should Leave. As a fellow flutist, I have to give flute representation credit where it's due. His first solo release in 17 years, André was a major topic of conversation on music Twitter after a quote about trying to make a rap album as a 48-year-old saw mixed opinions (emphasizing the point he’s making with New Blue Sun’s first track; “I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Just The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time.” Sometimes, we wanna go one way but the creative process takes us in another, and you just have to roll with it). While anyone of any age can make any kind of music, it is interesting that André made this kind of turn in his sound at this point in his career. I think it has less to do with age and more with the seasoned veteran status that comes with his professional trajectory. He’s gotten to a point where he can make and put out music just because he likes it, or wants to try something new, with little expectation as far as recouping the album’s costs or receiving some sort of acclaim. That’s one of my favorite places for an artist to be because nothing is keeping them in a certain box. I applaud André for making this leap, introducing listeners to a new kind of music, and exploring this new direction for himself and his sound. This doesn’t mean the rest of his career has to be centered on ambient flute tracks, it just means he has the freedom to go in even crazier and more unexpected directions the next time.
In basic terms, fuck commercialism, yay creative freedom.
Top tracks include: “I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Just The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time,” “That Night In Hawaii When I Turned Into A Panther And Started Making These Low Register Purring Tones That I Couldn’t Control … Sh¥t Was Wild”
Self-Titled, Blondshell
Blondshell is 2023’s version of the angry girl rock of the late ’90s. She’s my Liz Phair. Funnily enough, she’s been opening for Liz Phair at her Exile in Guyville 30th anniversary tour. Couldn’t have thought up a better bill if I tried.
Like many, my introduction to Blondshell (real name Sabrina Mae Teitelbaum) was through “Kiss City,” a track exposing her need for validation from her partner, comparing herself to potential others out there that could entice them (“I bet she talks dirty, like she’s on a mission”). Her Self-Titled debut came out in April, and since then has been a relatively unsung hero/slow-burn listening experience for me. It’s a quick record, 30 minutes across nine songs, but it’s taken a few rounds to get fully immersed. A high point (but emotionally, a low point) is “Sober Together,” a song that truly hits me in the gut and makes me lose my breath. I’ve been coming back to this song a lot lately, and the emotion, especially in Teitelbaum’s vocal delivery (that casual, conversational, but still melodic tone that feels like the lyrics were taken out of real-life events, paired with drawn-out falls at the end of each phrase): “Call me I wanna be there for you / But not in a way that lets you take me down with you.” I don’t think there’s ever been a better, more to-the-point representation of toxicity, dependence, and substance abuse. The song doesn’t shy away from the point it’s trying to make, and that honest approach to songwriting makes the entire record a confessional display of Blondshell at this point.
Top tracks include: “Olympus,” “Sober Together”
In the End It Always Does, The Japanese House
I enjoyed this album a lot more than I anticipated. As an OG The 1975 fan, I’ve been aware of The Japanese House (Amber Mary Bain) ever since Matty Healy started promoting her on their label (Dirty Hit) and had her open for them on tour in 2015. Though 2017’s “Saw You In A Dream” absolutely soundtracked my senior year of high school, I can’t say I’ve religiously kept up with Bain’s releases, but 2019’s Good At Falling was a high point of my 2022 listening. In the End It Always Does is a creative blend of futuristic synth, electropop, ’80s ballad, and bare-bones piano, both within and between songs (“Spot Dog,” “Sad to Breathe”). The entire album leans much more pop than I was anticipating, and the record as a whole gives a slight air of MUNA, which makes their feature on “Morning Pages” even more cohesive. The record itself covers heartbreak in varying forms; with help from The 1975’s George Daniel, Bain explores the highs and lows of a relationship's end, sometimes with hope, and other times with self-destruction. Where certain tracks like “Boyhood” could take you all the way to the club dancefloor, others like “Indexical reminder of a morning well spent” seem to be meant for somber isolation. It emphasizes the ups and downs of the healing process. While sounding like a classic The Japanese House record, there is a sense of elevation and refinement happening in Bain’s sound that pushes into folk and pop categories that weren’t previously explored.
Top tracks include: “Spot Dog,” “Touching Yourself,” “You always get what you want”
V, Unknown Mortal Orchestra
After exploding into the mainstream of Big Indie with 2018’s Sex & Food, Unknown Mortal Orchestra returned with V, a natural title for the group’s fifth studio release. It’s a casual and relaxed turn for the band, which has traditionally seen massive success among their quippiest and tightest tracks over the years (“So Good At Being In Trouble,” “Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark,” “Hunnybee”), songs frontman Ruban Nielson says he “couldn’t make again.” The record has the classic UMO sound—blown out, gritty, almost shoegaze-y in tone, incomplete without Nielson’s distinct vocals—while playing with song structure and instrumentals to still give listeners something fresh. The opener, six-minute “The Garden,” sets the tone for the rest of the creatively unbuttoned album, with a tangential guitar interlude that calls to mind the more experimental tracks on Multi-Love (2015) and II (2013) like “Puzzles” and “Monki,” tracks usually kept on the B side are now propped on display, setting the tone for the rest of the record to follow. The record’s closer, “Drag,” is V’s unsung hero, putting a bow on the laid-back philosophy of the entire record. A hazy and muted, but still catchy, guitar riff flows through its hypnotic cycle, with Nielson mumbling along with it by the track’s end. It feels like something Nielson went into the studio and did in one go and knew before even listening to it back that he didn’t need or want another take.
Nielson has kept a thoroughly active Twitter presence, especially compared to other musicians, offering passing thoughts related and unrelated to music, but most of the time he’s commenting on the state of the music industry in some way. He recently commented on André 3000’s New Blue Sun, comparing the creative leap to the idea of film directors releasing “one [film] for commerce or populace, one for some kind of inner reason.” One has to wonder if V is Nielson’s New Blue Sun, not necessarily to the same avant-garde degree, but in terms of creative mindset and approach.
Top tracks include: “Shin Ramyun,” “Nadja,” “Drag”
Let’s Start Here., Lil Yachty (February Roundup)
Top tracks include: “the BLACK seminole.,” “running out of time,” “THE zone~,” “The Alchemist.,” “REACH THE SUNSHINE.”
Red Moon in Venus, Kali Uchis
Kali Uchis brought decadence, femininity, and romance to her third studio album Red Moon in Venus. A fellow cancer, Uchis says the record is inspired, naturally, by the moon, and the ways she feels influenced by it throughout its phases. The moon is not stagnant, it is ever-changing. Not unlike people going through life.
The record is a perfect blend of the sounds Uchis has spent years honing: smooth R&B tones mixed with glittery pop and funky backbeats, making you want to strut, wallow, dance, embrace, and everything in between. Uchis creates opulent dream states that are tied together by her lush vocals. There is a throughline of self-love throughout Red Moon, and how that relates to romantic relationships, in good and bad ways—“Cause now that I’m doing good living like a queen / Dices que yo la vida te la jodí / It’s sad that you’re still obsessed keep lyin’ on me” on “Hasta Cuando” versus “I’m not broken yet / But sometimes it / sure feels like it / When you treat / me like a stranger” on “Blue”—Uchis teeters between overconfidence and self-doubt in a way that is relatable and emphasized by the moon and its apparent impact on her. Red Moon in Venus is undeniably Kali Uchis; it’s a record that takes everything we love about her to new extremes, fully leaning into the baddie energy her Kuchis fanbase has adopted.
Top tracks include: “Como Te Quiero Yo,” “Hasta Cuando,” “Endlessly”
Quaranta, Danny Brown
On Quaranta, Detroit rapper Danny Brown uses simple beats and creative sampling as the soundtrack to his to-the-point confessionals, offering a retrospective look at his career thus far. Brown, now 40, emphasizes his questions about his place in the rap scene and the music industry, amidst his struggles with substance abuse and the reckoning that eventually got him into rehab and sober. The title track opens with Brown catching listeners up on the things that have been going on in his life since 2012’s XXX, his breakout mixtape—“Bought a few cars and a house / Almost had a spouse / Got caught up she was out” — leaning into how his pursuit of his dreams impacted his relationships with the people in his life (“This rap shit done save my life / And fucked it up at the same time”). Brown takes space on the record to consider his place in the scene as a 40-year-old rapper (“Spittin’ on porches, rappin’ for a mortgage / For a bowl of porridge I put you into orbit”). Quaranta is as cheeky as it is hard-hitting; in true Brown fashion, his introspective reflections are met with levity (see the Michael Scott scream audio on “Tantor”), adding a slight sense of ease to the at times somber record. The most bluntly confessional track, “Down Wit It,” encompasses all of the regrets Brown has looking back at how his relationships have been impacted by both his career and his drug use. Though Brown keeps it personal for most of the album’s 34 minutes, he also shares his thoughts on what’s happening in the world around him, commenting on everything from the gentrification of his neighborhood (“Landlords looking for a payday / Now it’s rental scooters where we used to sling yay” on the comedically titled “Jenn’s Terrific Vacation”) to the childhood struggles of growing up in Detroit that both scarred and formed him. Across Quaranta, Brown uses everything his past 40 years have given him to inform his most personal release yet.
Top tracks include: “Quaranta,” “Dark Sword Angel”
I Inside the Old Year Dying, PJ Harvey
After experiencing a musical disconnect in the late 2010s, PJ Harvey took a turn to poetry, releasing Orlam in 2022. The book chronicles the nine-year-old Ira as she comes of age in her village of Underwhelem. I Inside the Old Year Dying takes some of these poems and sets them to music, a companion project of sorts; equally as melodic, eerie, and haunting as the book, with a more distinct autobiographical tone. The result is a folkly experimental retrospective, with tricky language and twisted plotlines that are sometimes hard to follow, but you don’t necessarily need to follow them, either. The record is creepy above anything else, but it has a veil of intrigue that draws listeners into this foggy grey world of middle grounds. In its most pared-down moments, I Inside is somber, evoking similarities to the acoustic moments on Mitski’s recent The Land is Inhospitable And So Are We (take the backing of “Lwonesome Tonight” next to the instrumentals on “I’m Your Man,” for an example). Harvey takes it even more eerie with the intricacies of her lyrics — reading them written out reminds you that they are poetry first. Aside from usual wordplay and vivid imagery, with much of the lyrics reading like a Yeats poem, Harvey also includes some words and phrases from the local dialect of Dorset, her birthplace (“Hark the greening of the earth / Curled ferns yet to uncurl / Hark the zingen of the birds / Gurrel yearns yet to un-girl”). This fully immerses listeners into the chilling worlds of both Harvey herself and her poetry, once again blurring the lines between her and Ira’s stories.
Top tracks include: “Seem an I,” “I Inside the Old I Dying,” “August”
I’ve Got Me, Joanna Sternberg (LOTW 01)
Top tracks include: “I’ve Got Me,” “People Are Toys to You,” “The Human Magnet Song”
Sorry I Haven’t Called, Vagabon
On Sorry I Haven’t Called, her third release as Vagabon, producer and songwriter Lætitia Tamko sets her inner monologue to various dance beats. After going through the loss of friend and musical collaborator Eric Littman in 2021, Tamko created this record as a form of healing, opening herself up to listeners in a way she hadn’t previously. For me, this record fills a similar role as Amber Marks’ Three Dimensions Deep from 2022, less in a direct genre comparison way (Marks was much more R&B leaning as opposed to dance-pop), and more in the use of happy instrumentals to back lyrics of self-doubt and insecurity, eventually leading to a newfound confidence in the artist. “Lexicon” is a high point: a perfect blend of pop textures, a hooky chorus, with floating and bright guitar accompaniment on a track talking about potentially letting go of a partner even if you’re not ready to walk away. You wouldn’t expect to want to dance along with a song so filled with longing, but the instrumentation makes it easy. On album closer “Anti-Fuck,” Tamko returns to the indie rock tones of her early releases, with an entrancing lyrical round that continues to build with layers upon layers of gritty guitar, finally giving listeners somewhat of a match between song and lyrical tone.
Top tracks include: “Lexicon,” “Anti-Fuck”
CLEAR 2: SOFT LIFE EP, Summer Walker*
*This is a 28-minute, nine-song EP, so I’m counting it as an album. Sorry!
Not many people could get me vibing with a J. Cole verse. Not trying to start anything, but that’s just the way my cookie crumbles. Summer Walker, though, she can.
“Losing people, findin’ peace / If I gotta choose between you or me / It’s me”
Summer Walker is clearing her head. She’s finding her peace. She’s putting herself first. In her first new solo release since 2021’s Still Over It, Walker finds distance from the trials and tribulations of her relationship with London on Da Track, events she’s already taken space to air out. In a since-deleted Instagram reel announcing CLEAR 2, the second project in her Clear series, Walker told fans “CLEAR Projects are my favorite type of music to make, it’s slick the only time I actually have fun making music. it’s raw it’s real it’s live. This is for my day 1 fans. the rest of y’all will get y’all auto tune packed radio joints when the album come out lol,” emphasizing that Walker is doing this for her, that this release is part of her healing and finding her center again. Spoken word, smooth bass, and jazzy guitar follow Walker through most of the tracks on CLEAR 2. The whole EP has an Erykah Badu tone, switching out thicker R&B textures for soft and poetic neo-soul. With production from Solange, Steve Lacy, and Jay Versace, CLEAR 2 is as deep sonically as it is emotionally, using a less is more ethos that emphasizes the clarity the record is exploring in the lyrics. The introspective release has rightfully earned her a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album.
Top tracks include: “Mind Yo Mouth,” “Finding Peace”
Look, A Live!, Jane Fonda Fan Club
Brooklyn psych rock group Jane Fonda Fan Club released their first live album earlier this year. Since then, the band has gone through some variations, finally finding all the pieces of their perfect lineup. Once a three-piece now a quintet, the group continues to elevate their sound and hone their live performances with vocal harmonies, dueling guitars, and expressive keys. Look, A Live! is the soundboard from their show at Arlene’s Grocery from March. It’s the first recording of some of the band’s newer material (“Brown Eyed Lady,” “Road to Nowhere,” “Runnin’ Back”), and also features the first release of their Shocking Blue via Nirvana cover of “Love Buzz.” The record gives us a taste of the studio album that is to come in 2024. Fronted by Ethan Fields, Look, A Live! gives listeners full band renditions of material from his solo debut, My Friend Moon, released last year. Favorites like “Back in Town” and “Waiting” get their jammier extended versions, offering hints of the psychedelic tangents the group’s first studio release is bound to have. Now featuring a lineup of Ethan Fields, Joe Ladd, Andrew Grossi, Ryan Gross, and Ryan Maeglin, JFFC is gearing up for 2024 to be their year.
Top tracks include: “Love Buzz,” “Brown Eyed Lady,” “Back in Town”
Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?, Kara Jackson
Illinois poet and singer-songwriter Kara Jackson made a statement with her debut album, the reflective and poignant spring release Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?. Jackson’s poetry takes center stage, her writing giving a lesson in world-building and offering a unique perspective and take on the folk genre. “dickhead blues” pushes Jackson into classic acoustic blues patterns, offering a modern-day rendition of the genre: a woman complaining about a man as opposed to the other way around. The record is sparse but full, with Jackson doing as much in one-minute songs like “therapy” as she does on eight-minute epics like “rat.” Previously released single “pawnshop” offers a bit of Jackson’s mentality surrounding herself and her place in her relationships: “I’m not a liquidated asset / And I’m sharper than a jewel / What kind of miner does that make you? / When I’m the gold and you’re just the fool.”
Jackson grew up on the folk of Jim Croce and Joni Mitchell, the latter of whom she refers to as “the blueprint.” The US National Youth Poet Laureate of 2019–20, her writing is concise and specific, personal enough to share parts of herself, but general enough so listeners can insert themselves into the story. The record is by no means an easy listen, with the title track tackling her thoughts on grief and loss, attempting to answer the overarching question of “why are we all here?” There’s grief in the traditional sense, but also in the sense of growing up, becoming an ‘adult’ after a sheltered childhood, trying to find a partner to go through life with, your priorities changing, and anything in between. There’s grief all around us, and Jackson uses her debut album to point this out and question our points of view about it all.
Top tracks include: “no fun/party,” “pawnshop,” “rat”
Self-Titled, 79.5
Brooklyn group 79.5 followed up their debut 2018’s Predictions (one of my favorite albums, just in general), with their self-titled effort on local Williamsburg label Razor-N-Tape. Taking a more dancey disco direction after Predictions’ funk lean, ringleaders Kate Mattison and Lola Adanna used the promotional singles to show they are not ones to be put in a box. “B.D.F.Q.” (yes, it stands for ‘Bitch Don’t Fuckin’ Quit’ and I love it; Mattison says she wrote it at a time when she was “truly over the music industry, and all that comes with it”) is a clear example. The second track on the LP, the Ibiza nightclub-worthy “Club Level” is immediately cut into a thick, slow bass and groovy spoken word. The track takes a spin for a rap break by Adanna, and then enters a piano and guitar interlude. The record has a throughline of psychedelia and experimentalism, with similar groove-setting as Predictions, taken to broader places across the genre spectrum. Tracks like “Stereo In The Window” and “Our Hearts Didn’t Go That Way” put Izaak Mills’ saxophone center stage, set to two completely different song styles, structures, and tempos. Between sultry grooves, doo-wop dance beats, and synthy retrospectives, 79.5 show off their versatility across Self-Titled.
Top tracks include: “Club Level,” “Stereo In The Window,” “Our Hearts Didn’t Go That Way”
Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, Lana Del Rey
Miss Lana blessed us with her epic endeavor in March, giving us a whole lot of time to absorb the nearly hour-and-a-half record. Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd sees Lana’s vocals as lush and sweeping as ever, with arrangements that build up and support her as she grapples with family (opening the album with a track entitled “The Grants,” seemingly cutting right to the chase), legacy (“Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep-sea fishing”), and her craft, among other things. Her voice is as clear and refined as ever, showing it off on the glittery semi-sweet track “Paris, Texas,” evoking something out of a nursery rhyme. Songs like “Fishtail,” “A&W,” and “Peppers” show a direct sonic contrast: the gritty beats and clear attitude show a with-the-times version of the down and dirty tracks on early records like Ultraviolence (the cadence of “It doesn’t really matter, doesn’t / really, really matter” on “A&W” gives a bit of “Brooklyn Baby”; “Hands on your / knees, I’m / Angelina Jolie” on “Peppers,” set to borderline hip-hop beat akin to the Born to Die era). As a Lana fan, and a die-hard lover of 2019’s Norman Fucking Rockwell!, I was happy to see the callbacks to that record among tracks on Ocean Blvd: the most prominent of them being album closer “Taco Truck x VB” is a high point, especially for those that appreciate the psychedelic tangents of the original “Venice Bitch.” I’m the first to say I’m not a Jack Antonoff fan, but he and Lana worked some magic with this release.
Top tracks include: “Paris, Texas” “Fishtail,” “Peppers,” “Taco Truck x VB”
Saturnia, GUM
Arguably one of the busiest people in Australian psych rock, POND band member and Tame Impala live synth god Jay Watson somehow found time to drop Saturnia, his sixth solo record as GUM. Opening with the six-minute epic “Race to the Air,” we see immediate inspiration from the creative vision behind Kevin Parker’s The Slow Rush, with tight synths and a catchy hook giving space to a jammy vamp that shows off his crystal clear production. Watson continues to call back to his POND and Tame influences with the quick “Muscle Memory,” a near-instrumental complete with a crunchy and distorted guitar solo and synths that give clear spaceship energy. Watson doesn’t stick to this scope for the rest of the record, though, taking time to explore his folkier side on the mostly acoustic “Music Is Bigger Than Hair,” and flex his jazzy bossa skills on “Would It Pain You To See?” and “Fear of Joy.” There’s a semi-ballad lean that gives Saturnia another layer of depth, getting into the gritter bits of Watson’s inner monologue.
All in all, I will just always support Jay Watson. That is my DUDE. Good for him.
Top tracks include: “Muscle Memory,” “Would It Pain You To See?”
Hackney Diamonds, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones putting out their first collection of new original music since 2006, minus foundational drummer Charlie Watts, no less, sounds like a great chance to prove a point about old dogs and new tricks. Though they stick to what they know, the Stones surprised almost everyone when Hackney Diamonds wasn’t completely terrible. Aside from not being terrible, it goes so far as being pretty good.
If you consume music news of any kind, you probably know that Pitchfork published a pretty deliberately malicious review of Hackney Diamonds, calling it an unnecessary cash grab of uninspired ‘duds.’ While I agree with the critiques of the all-too-polished production (thanks to Andrew Watt, who’s also worked with the likes of Post Malone, Camila Cabello, Kygo, and 5 Seconds of Summer, not really contemporaries in terms of the Stones’ gritty and quintessentially classic rock approach they’re known for), I don’t understand the attempt to say Jagger, Richards, et al are using Hackney Diamonds solely to add to their already massive bank accounts. In my eyes, the Stones did Hackney Diamonds because they could. And because it was fun. All I see are three guys continuing to do what they love because they love it. And the songs are good! You want to play them more than once! And Lady Gaga. I can’t talk about this without talking about “Sweet Sounds Of Heaven,” the epic (should have been closer) featuring Lady Gaga on vocals and Stevie Wonder on keys. A moment that only happened because Gaga, the legend that she is, decided to pop in and say hello to her old friends she once performed “Gimme Shelter” with way back in 2012. What else could I, a Stones AND Gaga fan, have wanted? The answer, not much.
Top tracks include: “Angry,” “Dreamy Skies,” “Sweet Sounds Of Heaven”
My Soft Machine, Arlo Parks
Arlo Parks’ glittery, sugary sweet presence returns on My Soft Machine, her followup to her statement-making debut Collapsed in Sunbeams from 2021. My favorite moments on this album are when Parks leans into her transporting vocal tones and R&B production flares, with “Purple Phase”>“Weightless”>“Pegasus” standing out in terms of three-track runs. The Phoebe Bridgers feature on “Pegasus” is as natural as you’d expect, with the pair’s vocals working beautifully with each other. Two songwriters who heavily lean into the world around them for musical inspiration, Parks made a smart feature choice on a record that is “the world through [her] eyes.” On My Soft Machine, Parks stitches herself into the fabric of something similar to Gen Z’s bassy answer to Sabrina Claudio’s grooves.
Top tracks include: “Purple Phase,” “Pegasus”
The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, Mitski (September Roundup)
Top tracks include: “Bug Like An Angel,” “I Don’t Like My Mind,” “When Memories Snow,” “The Frost”
When Horses Would Run, Being Dead (LOTW 03)
Top tracks include: “The Great American Picnic,” “Daydream,” “Treeland”
delusions, Kibi James (August Roundup)
Top tracks include: “i know,” “testament”
10,000 gecs, 100 gecs
I’m gonna be 100% real. I hated this album when I first listened to it. I couldn’t get into it from any angle, and it sounded like overwhelming noise rather than anything musical or inspired. After taking a nearly six-month break from even thinking about 10,000 gecs, I gave it another listen recently and realized it goes incredibly hard. Once you get over it sounding like video game music.
Laura Les and Dylan Brady give debilitatingly-online a new look on 10,000 gecs. Thick distortion, the most hyper of hyperpop, and a late-2000s production feel emphasize the duo at their most chaotic, and their most confident. I’m admittedly not versed enough in the space 100 gecs takes up in the techno/house/pop/rock scene to give an insightful analysis, but from the perspective of a once skeptic to now an almost fan, the maximalist approach to 10,000 gecs is something to revel in rather than shy away from. Absorbing the record for all that it is, and having fun with it in a similar way that Les and Brady had fun making it, rather than wishing it were something else is the preferred approach for the best and most stimulating experience.
If anything I’m inspired by the DGAF attitude of it all.
Top tracks include: “Dumbest Girl Alive,” “Hollywood Baby”
That! Feels Good!, Jessie Ware
“That feels good. Do it again.”
“Freedom is a sound / And pleasure is a right!”
Just a couple of mantras off the opening track of the disco dance-pop record That! Feels Good! by Jessie Ware. Released over 10 years after her debut album, Devotion (2012), Ware returns with a followup to 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure?, the record that first solidified her once uncertain space in the industry: disco dance pop queen.
Ware takes lessons from the greats on That! Feels Good!, with Chic and the Trammps as obvious inspiration. Rather than forming her own idea of what she thinks disco sounds like and going from there, Ware looks back at those who were doing it first, making the tracks on That! Feels Good! a modernized rendition that still keeps its foundations close, without sounding like a not-as-good copy. Her vocals are sweeping and as impressive as ever, still getting their space to shine on pseudo-ballads like “Hello Love,” while adding depth and height to classic disco bops like “Free Yourself” (a song I have turned to any time I’ve had any sort of negative feeling this year). In interviews promoting the record, Ware says she leaned into the praises and desires of her LGBTQ+ fanbase when taking the idea of pleasure even further on That! Feels Good!, “They wanted me to be this kind of dominatrix commander to them,” she told Pitchfork. “They relished it, and they willed it on. So I was like, ‘OK, I’ll give you a bit more of that!’” Where What’s Your Pleasure? introduces the idea of living for yourself and putting your pleasure first, That! Feels Good! comes from a woman who’s been living in her own pleasure for a few years. It’s as if Ware is saying “I’ve done it, and you can, too!” to any fans who doubted if this mindset really does you any good.
In essence, this is a woman who has found her niche and capitalized on it, making the world a better, more pleasure-centered place because of it. The disco revival is among us and we have Jessie Ware to thank!
Top tracks include: “Free Yourself,” “Pearls,” “Begin Again”
Bunny, Beach Fossils (June Roundup)
Top tracks include: “Sleeping On My Own,” “(Just Like The) Setting Sun,” “Tough Love,” “Numb”
Something To Give Each Other, Troye Sivan (October Roundup)
Top tracks include: “What’s The Time Where You Are,” “How To Stay With You”
With a Hammer, Yaeji
On her full-length debut, Korean-American Yaeji explores the different faces of her anger through a unique blend of techno and synth-pop that consistently surprises. In a stark turn away from 2017’s thick, house-heavy track “Raingurl,” Yaeji utilizes a less is more approach on With a Hammer. Her anger is multifaceted, directed toward different areas of her life (family/childhood memories, the recent rise in anti-Asian hate and bigotry, the near societal collapse of 2020, among other things), and Yaeji takes space, in a way that toes the line of ambient, that allows for more experimentation. Her tracks are sonically deep, allowing you to focus on different elements in each listen, always able to find something new and appreciate all parts of the record (like how many tracks have flute!! Who said flutists couldn’t do techno??). This setup also puts Yaeji’s songwriting in the foreground, making more direct statements lyrically, often splitting songs into half Korean and half English, emphasizing her identity-first approach to this record. Tracks like “Done (Let’s Get It)” highlight Yaeji’s societal discontent, urging her zillennial contemporaries to take a stand to ignite change—“Isn’t it our mission this life to / Break the cycles, make it make you mend the cycles?” Yaeji hones her rage into a calmer-than-expected, textured record that shows off her production skills and songwriting.
Top tracks include: “Submerge FM,” “For Granted,” “Done (Let’s Get It)”
Root Cause, Cleo Reed
New York’s Cleo Reed (born Ella Moore) released their debut solo project, Root Cause, in February of this year. A member of Vinyl Me Please’s VMP Rising, Reed uses their music to focus on her lineage and ancestry as a Black queer femme in the US, with Root Cause written at a time of intense anxiety around their identity. Inspired by the Harlem Renaissance, the Jazz Age, the Black American Circus (they dressed up as a clown for promo shoots for this record), and the blues, Reed takes these elements and turns them into their own modern renditions, creating a debut release that is deeply linked to their identity. Their stage name Cleo comes from their great-grandmother, and Reed took it on to “address intergenerational trauma, sacrifices, and observations” across their work, more deeply connecting them to their ancestry. The work is as intimate and personal as it is relatable, with Reed using their voice as one to speak for many in their shoes: “This is BLACK work, FEMME work, QUEER work,” Reed says in the liner notes. They use their gentle and refined voice in conjunction with deliberate production choices that show anger, restraint, finesse, and that Reed is only just getting started.
Top tracks include: “Slip Away,” “Problem Kid,” “Letter To You”
Eye On The Bat, Palehound
Songwriter and guitarist El Kempner uses Eye On The Bat to dive deep into the present moment, giving listeners a live look at the small things that lead a relationship to crumble. An overall grungier effort than previous releases, Kempner packages their anger and anxiety into ingestible but retrospective-enough tracks with rocking guitar (“The Clutch”) or the occasional acoustic twang (“Eye On The Bat”). Kempner calls Eye On The Bat “a breakup record,” and says their focus when recording (at Flying Cloud Recordings in the Catskills, alongside Sam Evian, producer of Big Thief’s mammoth Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You from 2022) was for the record to sound raw, a direct sonic translation of the in and out of control feelings of the end of a relationship. Where there is turmoil and anguish (“My Evil”), there is also sweetness and excitement, most notably on the cutesy “Route 22.” Kempner explores the flirtatious tension and slight ambiguity that come with a relationship on edge (“You come for love / to call my bluff, to tell no lies, and keep me wild”). Across Eye On The Bat, Kempner lets us into the small, forgettable moments of a relationship’s demise that become instantly unforgettable with their transporting scene-setting and world-building through in-the-moment lyrics and storytelling; take the opening verse of “Right About You:”
“Cold water breaking at our feet / I pull up the ankles of my pants, and you laugh at me / And we came down here to see the sunset / But I’m in a bad spot and I can’t see it / But its shimmer’s reflecting like blazes / Melting the floor to ceiling windows of / Great big houses on a beach in Northern California, / and you- / Point out the dark of the trees, and you were right / about it scaring me / And I was right about you scaring me too.”
It’s like I’m there on the beach with them. Feeling all of those feelings they’re feeling. It’s no wonder Phoebe Bridgers said Palehound is her 2023 artist of the year in boygenius’ recent Stereogum profile.
Top tracks include: “Eye On The Bat,” “Route 22”
Self-Titled, Cut Worms
One of my first concerts of the year was Real Estate at Racket, with Cut Worms (fronted by Max Clarke) as the opening act. Previously unfamiliar, I was sufficiently impressed with the classically indie and jangly guitar tones, and the smooth but crisp vocals. It felt full circle when I saw that their self-titled release came out in July. With nine tracks that harken back to a simpler time in music, Clarke gives us quippy and concise tracks with classic Byrds-inspired guitar twang and Lennon-esque vocals (sometimes going back even further to the days of Orbison and Sinatra), singing mostly about love in all of its forms. The era of pop “essentialism” that so directly inspires Clarke is clear, but he takes these sounds a step further, adding his own storytelling flare that contextualizes the record in the post-pandemic era of its inception (the existential“Let’s go out on the town / Feel how to be alive / Oh, but I don’t wanna die” on the otherwise inconspicuous and cutesy “Let’s Go Out on the Town,” the reflective “After all that we’ve been through, now nothing is lost / Ah, doesn’t anybody have a job? / Ah, doesn’t anybody see?” on “Is it Magic?”). Cut Worms is everything good about classic folk/pop, with refreshing production and an indie-fied flare.
Your midwestern dad’s favorite indie rock album.
Top tracks include: “Don’t Fade Out,” “Is it Magic?”
The Greater Wings, Julie Byrne (LOTW 04)
Top tracks include: “Portrait Of A Clear Day,” “Summer Glass,” “Flare”
the record, boygenius (March Roundup)
Top tracks include: “Cool About It,” “Leonard Cohen,” “Letter To An Old Poet”
Gag Order, Kesha (May Roundup)
Top tracks include: “Eat The Acid,” “Peace & Quiet”
SPELLLING & The Mystery School, SPELLLING
Chrystia Cabral took tracks from her first three records as SPELLLING (2017’s Pantheon of Me, 2019’s Mazy Fly, and 2021’s The Turning Wheel) and reimagined them with new arrangements on SPELLLING & The Mystery School. Taking a similar direction as The Turning Wheel, Cabral leans into symphonic compositions and live orchestrations to add dimension and depth to the tracks. The directions Cabral takes are gorgeous and unique; you’re able to listen to the song as its own entity, but also in comparison to its original version. The fact that Cabral can take these songs in such new directions after already calling them finished just shows the many directions of her mind. Being able to take something she previously built, reconstruct it, and reinterpret it into something just as engulfing and palpable shows true production and composition prowess, and songwriting malleability. Cabral leans into the cinematic, with the eerie opening track “Walk Up to Your House” being reimagined with live orchestration to create a hauntingly larger-than-itself film score epic.
Top tracks include: “Under the Sun,” “They Start the Dance”
My 21st Century Blues, RAYE
For years, Raye (Rachel Keen) has been cosplaying as a completely different musical entity. After signing to Polydor at 17, she got thrown on a slew of EDM and dance tracks (most notably David Guetta, if that gives you an idea of the vibe there). As years went by, the label refused to fund her full-length release until she hit certain metrics. In 2021, she exposed Polydor, tweeting “I have been on a 4 ALBUM RECORD DEAL since 2014 and haven’t been allowed to put out one album,” and leaving the label shortly after. My 21st Century Blues is Keen’s declaration of independence. She works through her issues with her label, yes, but also issues that are bigger than her alone, like addiction, abuse, and corruption in the entertainment industry at large. While keeping her dance and EDM past nearby, Keen blends this foundation with elements of big band, jazz, and true pop to create her own sonic blend (“Black Mascara” is a good display of this: a through and through EDM track by the breakdown, the song opens with entrancing falsettos akin to Marina and the Diamonds’ “Teen Idle.” Take this next to “Mary Jane” a few tracks later, a bluesy jazz track that allows Keen to go off vocally and give some of that speakeasy performance vibe to the record).
I saw Raye open for Kali Uchis in May. Throughout her performance, she did not shy away from sharing the detailed backstories of the tracks on this album, as well as her experiences while on Polydor and her overall history as an artist thus far. She brought the jazzy big band sound to life at Radio City, using horns, guitars, and keys to lean into the bluesy sound she feels at home with. She showed off her live vocals, leaning into riffs and runs that added a Winehouse texture to her whole performance. By the end of her 45-minute set, she completely won the crowd over, getting standing ovations and roaring applause and leaving Radio City with even more people supporting her on her journey.
Top tracks include: “Body Dysmorphia.,” “Environmental Anxiety.,” “Five Star Hotels.”
BB/ANG3L, Tinashe
I’ll be the first to say I had no idea how long Tinashe’s been in the game (I was blissfully unaware that she was the vocalist on the earth-shattering “All My Friends” with Snakeships and Chance the Rapper, a song that tilted the axis of my Long Island high school in 2015). A trailblazing writer, performer, and producer, Tinashe has been releasing albums all across the experimental pop/R&B spectrum since 2014’s Aquarius.
Her sixth studio album, BB/ANG3L, lands almost in EP territory with seven tracks across the 20-minute runtime. What she lacks in sheer length she makes up for with variety and creativity. Opening with the strident and engaging “Treason” sets the record on an almost chaotic path. Cutting right to the chase, Tinashe isn’t messing around in any sense of the word, building intensity with layered vocals that evoke 2000s Rihanna, and driving clap beats and exploding synths. “Treason” quickly jumps right into the more classically R&B “Talk To Me Nice,” a two-parter that takes a slightly darker turn at the halfway point, then the TikTok-ified “Needs,” a track you can imagine soundtracking viral videos and the latest dance trends (a track Tinashe has said she considers “one of the more lighthearted songs [she’s] put out in a while”). My two favorite tracks come last, “None Of My Business” and “Tightrope.” Both explore the intricacies of a toxic relationship (specifically dealing with a cheater), but take different sonic routes to prove their points. The former uses a chilled groove and spacey synths with catchy but despondent vocals; the latter rockets off on a driving, trap-leaning beat that mirrors the pacing of the album’s opener with whispery vocal delivery. This duality shows Tinashe’s ability to go down different paths but still make everything cohesive, a major part of what makes BB/ANG3L so great.
Top tracks include: “None Of My Business,” “Tightrope”
Tracey Denim, bar italia (LOTW 02)
Top tracks include: “Nurse!,” “punkt,” “harpee”
Come June, Mitch Rowland (LOTW 09)
Top tracks include: “Bluebells,” “Goes With Everything”
Joy’All, Jenny Lewis
Yee freaking haw. An immediate heavy hitter in my daily rotation, Jenny Lewis’ alt-country record Joy’All explores the artist’s pursuit of happiness (“Follow your joy’all” off the title track serving as a solid thesis statement for the album). A loose, casual record, Lewis leans into the core of her sound, emphasizing her conversational yet still melodic vocals, exploring her relationship with herself through her relationships with others. It’s an overall optimistic record, for all the potential issues and pain it explores, even “Apples and Oranges,” a song set up like a letter to an ex, shows Lewis hyping up the new person she’s with to rub in how well she’s doing. Lighthearted is the name of the game, with simple but effective instrumentation that gives the record a ‘Live at the Troubador’ feel. Everything is catchy, perfectly accompanied, and perfect for basking in the sun and doing what makes you happy.
To hammer in her utmost casual attitude, Lewis also has a pretty hilarious Twitter presence. After Bethany Cosentino (formerly of Best Coast) tweeted about her condescending Pitchfork review, Lewis replied with “fuck @pitchfork. they’ve been ruining my release day/week for over 20 years! i stopped reading in 2005! don’t read that shit beth” (Pitchfork gave Joy’All a 6.7, saying it lacked bite). She’s also been pretty outspoken about her opinions of musicians’ place in the industry, saying things like “a retirement plan for a musician is a day job” and “some of your favorite songs were written by people who haven’t health insurance.” Truly the people’s Bob Dylan. Braver than the Marines. Thank you, Jenny!
Top tracks include: “Psychos,” “Joy’All,” “Giddy Up,” “Love Feel”
Girl In The Half Pearl, Liv.e
Liv.e’s Girl In The Half Pearl is one of the year's most unique releases. Taking inspiration from classic jazz (Wayne Shorter is a favorite), Olivia Williams uses her neo-soul upbringing (she comes from a family of musicians) and love for jazz and blues to create experimental soundscapes as she absorbs the world around her. Liv.e told Stereogum that the record title comes from the idea of seeing a smaller version of herself in a snow globe that has just been shaken; Girl In The Half Pearl explores a young person in flux, with the knowledge that everything will eventually settle in equilibrium. Tracks like “Snowing!” make more sense in this context: an almost creepy techno track that features elusive spoken word—“I’m sorry if I / If it came off insecure / I’m learning to love myself”—before going straight into “Wild Animals,” the record’s most straightforward track that features DOOM-esque production and sampling and the clearest hook across the record (“I got my nose up in the air / I got my finger to the sky”). The corresponding video for “Wild Animals” shows Liv.e sitting with various big dogs (Rottweilers, Great Danes, etc.) dressed in the best BDSM leather and latex have to offer, emphasizing the independent path she is charting forward. Released in February, Girl In The Half Pearl is unlike anything else that dropped the rest of the year. Wholly unique and experimental, and a transporting listening experience.
Top tracks include: “Ghost,” “Wild Animals”
Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, Caroline Polachek
Here she is. MY album of the year. With a Valentine’s Day release, I can fully acknowledge that Caroline Polachek’s sophomore solo effort Desire, I Want To Turn Into You had the most time to make an impact on me throughout the year, but it’s my favorite nonetheless. The album has only gotten better as time has gone on; almost a year after its release I’m still finding new things in every song. That’s what makes Desire so great, and Polachek so great: the depth, whether it be in lyrics, production, instrumentation, or overall concept. From opener “Welcome To My Island,” Polachek invites you into her world, the world in which she’s seen crawling on a subway floor on the album’s cover, approaching some sort of distant beach (“See the palm trees wave in the wind,” “Float on the ocean blue”). Polachek’s writing is as crisp and descriptive as ever, creating images of lush velveteen homes, fiery red sunsets, and glimmering fairies, giving everything a fantastical and faraway land feeling. A natural wordsmith, Polachek uses quirky terms and phrases to her advantage, creating patterns and textures that make it sound like her speaking voice just naturally comes out in melodic sprawls, adding to the idea of fantasy sometimes akin to the riddle caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland (“Lying in the foot of a linden / In the navel ring inventing June” on “Blood And Butter,” where her voice control is on full display). On the album closer, “Billions,” Polacheck puts on a show, completely inhabiting the story of the song and overflowing with emotion and desire—“Sexting / Sonnets / Under the tables / Tangled in cables oh / Billions.” You can hear the yearning in her delivery, and it only continues to grow as the track goes on, adding in vocals from the Trinity Choir that give everything a very ‘ascending into heaven’ feel.
Desire is equal parts synthpop hits (“Bunny Is A Rider”) and experimental introspection (“Crude Drawing Of An Angel,” “Hopedrunk Everasking”), while also exploring every genre in between. What other album has flamenco, bagpipes, and a Grimes feature? I would be surprised if any. Polacheck shows she can take on virtually any style, melding her voice and her futuristic beats to fit in any context. My favorite tracks now weren’t the same favorites as when Desire first dropped. The more I sat with everything, the clearer I saw her vision, and found different elements, lyrics, and melodies that resonated with me. I’ve now found affinities for very specific parts of the record, some of them being: the syncopated clapping beat on “Sunset” that cuts out before Polachek gives us one of her classic opera runs accompanied by only a snare, the line “Oracle and Odyssey / With the bloody nose / If I’m on your street / You’ll be the last to know” on “Pretty In Possible,” the church bell in the opening of “Blood And Butter.” Polachek knows how to cut through all the other noise and hit you where it hurts, but also where it feels good.
With Desire, Caroline Polachek cements herself as one of the definitive pop auteurs of the 21st century.
Top tracks include: “Pretty In Possible,” “Sunset,” “Blood And Butter,” “Billions”
